The field of the invention is Check-Controlled Apparatus and the present invention is an improvement in the coin chutes used in a check-rotated wheel apparatus.
The state of the art of the coin apparatus of the present invention may be ascertained by reference to U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,991,867; 3,053,370; and 3,054,493, of James T. Schuller, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein.
With particular reference to U.S. Pat. No. 2,991,867, prior art coin chutes are shown in FIGS. 7 through 9. The present invention is an improvement over the coin-actuated totalizing function of U.S. Pat. No. 2,991,867, wherein the amount of coins deposited in a vending machine is totalized by modifying the coin chutes of FIGS. 7 to 9.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,991,867 has a coin totalizer unit which includes an arm constituted by a trip wire pivoted to swing on an axis of a shaft and having a finger at its free end which extends across three coin chutes for nickels, dimes and quarters, respectively. These coin chutes are held in a coin chute assembly and the assembly is mounted on a plate.
The arrangement of U.S. Pat. No. 2,991,867 is such that a coin dropping in any one of the coin chutes swings the trip wire down from its raised retracted position through an angle corresponding to the value of the coin. The coin then escapes from the trip wire, the wire swings back up to its raised retracted position, and on its upward swing it acts to index a stop means forward (rotate it counter-clockwise) a number of steps corresponding to the value of the coin. A nickel indexes the stop means forward one step, a dime indexes the stop means forward two steps, and a quarter indexes the stop means forward five steps.
The stop means of the totalizer unit of U.S. Pat. No. 2,991,867 has markings spaced at intervals corresponding to the spacing of the ratchet teeth and representing prices from five cents to sixty cents in five cent increments.
More recent models of the coin apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 2,991,867, which are particularly used in cigarette vending machines, have a stop means of the totalizer having spacings representing prices up to $1.40, in twenty-eight increments or twenty-eight clicks of the ratchet.
Because of inflation, particularly in cigarettes, the upper limit of $1.40 is not a sufficient coin capacity to accommodate price rises above $1.40.